Hunters Point Shipyard transformation in home buyers' hands (SFGate)

Michael Brown sprays down the land at the Shipyard, the new development at Hunters Point in San Francisco. Photo: Tim Hussin, Special To The Chronicle

Since 1997 Lennar Urban has been selling its vision of a revitalized Hunters Point Shipyard to everyone from Bayview district neighbors to union bosses to environmentalists.

Now the builder is ready to start selling to the one group that matters to its shareholders: home buyers.

With the wooden frames of 88 town houses and flats marching up the hillside off Innes Avenue, Lennar is putting the final touches on its "welcome center": a 3,500-square-foot industrial chic modular building with a fireplace, comfy seating and an expansive deck overlooking the bay.

While 88 homes is a modest number in a city with thousands of units under construction, it's important because it is the start of arguably the most ambitious real estate development plan in the city's history: a $7 billion, 750-acre project aimed at transforming an abandoned Navy complex into a neighborhood with 12,000 homes and millions of square feet of office and retail space.